Hey everyone....I just saw this artice come up on my yahoo home page. If BFS is indeed related to anxiety (?????--I know no one knows for sure), the future steps from this new study might end up helping us all out.

Interesting new research on a specific brain protien:
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Protein Found to Regulate Sleep, Anxiety

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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 18 (HealthDayNews) -- A brain protein that regulates sleep and anxiety may offer a target for the development of new drugs to treat conditions such as sleep and anxiety disorders and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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In research with rodents, University of California, Irvine scientists found that neuropeptide S (NPS) increases alertness, suppresses sleep and controls stress response. The results indicate that NPS, first identified in 2002, is an important modulator of sleep and alertness.

"Since our knowledge of NPS is so new, we may be at the tip of iceberg in understanding its function," lead researcher Rainer Reinscheid, an assistant adjunct professor in pharmacology, said in a prepared statement.

"We've found NPS to be so active with sleep and anxiety behavior that it can be a very attractive drug target, both to enhance and to suppress its function," Reinscheid said.

The study appears in the Aug. 19 issue of Neuron.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about sleep.